Monday, December 8, 2008

Winter is here!


No doubt about it, winter has finally arrived.
Single digit temps, dusting of snow, sun is low in the sky and daylight fades by 4:30pm. Plus, the cats sleep as close as possible to the woodstove - that's the sure sign of winter!
So, maybe that's what prompted me to paint
this scene, "Twilight, Boston Common". Well, really, I just wanted to do something different.I am enjoying placing figures in the landscape, and this view of the Common at the end of the day after a light snow and drizzle seemed like a nice way to play around with that idea.
Color harmony is achieved by a very limited palette,(for you non-painters out there, that just means I only used a few colors) and using a "mother color" in every mixture, in this case, oxide red for a warm, transparent glow. Actually, the entire painting was done with oxide red, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, and alizarin crimson, plus white. The umbrella, the one spot of real "color", has a touch of cadmium red in it, and the lights have just a whisper of cadmium yellow. There's some slight skewing to the photo, so those lamp posts arent really bent.
I hope it's warmer tomorrow!

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